February Board Meeting

We had a productive Board meeting last night but we did not have time to get to the facilities question that I thought we would. Therefore we will carry that over to a priority discussion for our March meeting which is scheduled for March 31st.

Facilities Committee report: The focus was on planned work as most recently the air lock entrance to the gym was completed. So next up is the monument sign at the North Campus which the Committee is committed to having in place before the school year is out. Also for consideration were summer projects to install bleachers (if the funds come in) and to install more impactful signage for our gym entrance. They are also examining security/communication options for the North Campus for installation next year.

Planning Committee report: they are continuing to lead the Board in the process of having an intentional succession plan in place. After 18+ months of Board work, the next step is to gather input from representatives of the Maranatha Family as to important parts of this process. So Sean Slattery and I will be conducting focus group sessions with parents, teachers and administrators in March to gather that input.

Development Committee report: 1) Affirmed a 5 year plan for the committee (I will share more about this in a separate post). 2) They are considering some additional signage options on the west end of the North campus facing Swarner Park. 3) Developing plans for getting the right person and/or people engaged to build a strategy and have the time to carry out a funding development effort (also more in another post). 4) There are many Marketing, Fund Raising and Public Relation activities going on (more in...you guessed it...another post).

Finance Committee report: We continue to celebrate the Lord's faithfulness as our operation budget continues to be in good shape. We have a positive balance which will help us continue to invest in the school and our people so that we can maximize our efforts in accomplishing our Mission. One priority investment we are going to make is increasing the compensation for our professional and support staff. As contracts go out next month, we have built into the planned budget for next year raises for all teachers and support staff. The Board was enthusiastically in support of this action and to fund it supported a tuition increase for next year in light of the fact that salaries have been frozen for 3 years. Our last item was to ask for a focused evaluation by an industry expert on our pre school. When run at the appropriate capacity, the pre school generates a significant profit that in the future could help us restrain tuition increases while allowing for a stable operating budget and funding growth at our school. As we dive into this evaluation, I will be sharing more of our plans.

The final hour of our meeting was devoted to position statements concerning our handling the finances of the school. After much discussion, we agreed to the following in principle:
1) To fund growth and our operating budget increases, we will look to other income outside of tuition and increasing enrollment as our top priority source. For the near term future we desire that this type of income be generated from our pre school since it aligns well with our Mission, it is a business already in place, and it has in the past generated significant profits.

2) We directed the Development Committee to seek to further restrain tuition increases by intentionally and aggressively seeking to grow the number of students enrolled in Maranatha. We will need your help to reach your Christian friends and be an advocate for Maranatha to them.

3) We will continue to be very judicious concerning increasing tuition rates. Any tuition rate increases should be carefully justified and communication as to the necessities of those increases should be communicated to the Maranatha family.

I hope this information is helpful to you, and as always, I encourage your input on these matters.